th century the chief original developments had lost their first
vigour, while, on the other hand, the influence of the regular forms of
Provencal poetry had had time to make itself fully felt. There arose in
consequence, in northern France, a number of artificial forms, the
origin and date of which is somewhat obscure, but which rapidly attained
great popularity, and which continued for fully two centuries almost to
monopolise the attention of poets who did not devote themselves to
narrative. These forms, the Ballade, the Rondeau, the Virelai, etc.,
have already been alluded to as making their appearance among the later
growths of early lyrical poetry. They must now be treated in the
abundant development which they received at the hands of a series of
poets from Lescurel to Charles d'Orleans.

[Sidenote: General Character. Varieties.]

The principle underlying all these forms is the same, that is to say,
the substitution for the half-articulate refrain of the early Romances,
of a refrain forming part of the sense, and repeated with strict
regularity at the end or in the middle of stanzas rigidly corresponding
in length and constitution. In at least two cases, the _lai_ and the
_pastourelle_, the names of earlier and less rigidly exact forms were
borrowed for the newer schemes; but the more famous and prevailing
models[110], the Ballade, with its modification the Chant Royal, and
the Rondel, with its modifications the Rondeau and the Triolet, are new.
It has been customary to see in the adoption of these forms a sign of
decadence; but this can hardly be sustained in face of the fact that, in
Charles d'Orleans and Villon respectively, the Rondel and the Ballade
were the occasion of poetry far surpassing in vigour and in grace all
preceding work of the kind, and also in presence of the service which
the sonnet--a form almost if not quite as artificial--has notoriously
done to poetry. It may be admitted, however, that the practitioners of
the Ballade and the Rondeau soon fell into puerile and inartistic
over-refinements. The forms of Ballade known as Equivoquee, Fratrisee,
Couronnee, etc., culminating in the preposterous Emperiere, are
monuments of tasteless ingenuity which cannot be surpassed in their
kind, and they have accordingly perished. But both in France and in
England the Ballade itself and a few other forms have retained
popularity at intervals, and have at the present day broken out into
fresh and vigorous life.